Manufactured vs modular homes

[Andre1969]

Mobile homes aren't permitted at all in my county, unless they're grandfathered in or in a trailer park. Now if you took a "manufactured home" and put it on a permanent foundation, that might be a different story. For instance, I have a cousin who has a "manufactured home" that looks kinda like this: http://www.manufactured-home-refinancing.com/67558FRONT.JPG , only it's on a permanent cinder block foundation, and is anchored down.

I think my cousin's is something like 28x70, so it was trucked in as two 14x70 sections. She's also in a different county, so I don't know if they'd let you get away with something like this where I live.

 

[Martha]

For those of you close to Minneapolis, the Walker Art Center has an exhibit until March 26 on contemporary prefabricated homes. Looks really interesting. WE probably will go and look. The exhibit is traveling to the Vancouver ARt Gallery next and will be their April 29 through Sept 4. I don't know if it is Vancouver BC or WA.

Prices seem to range from $88 to $250 a square foot, depending on how upscale you go. Article on this in the January 26 WSJ.

 

[REWahoo]

WE probably will go and look.

Would this be the "royal WE" or the WE as in "Greg and I"?

Modular homes make a lot of sense but have a major uphill battle to combat the trailer/doublewide mindset. I've not seen manufactured homes make any real headway in this part of the world. Too many low-end stick built subdivisions going up to give the mfg. home guys much wiggle room.

 

[Andre1969]

I wonder what kind of restrictions some communties would have on post-and-beam type structures? The company that built my 24x40 garage also does house packages. I think you can get a 24x32 Cape Cod with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, and a 6x32 porch across the front for around $50-55K. Plus side prep, of course.

 

[haha]

I wonder what kind of restrictions some communties would have on post-and-beam type structures?  The company that built my 24x40 garage also does house packages.  I think you can get a 24x32 Cape Cod with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, and a 6x32 porch across the front for around $50-55K.  Plus side prep, of course.

Andre, do they have a web site? Could you post a link?

Ha

 

[Andre1969]

Sure, Ha...

The url is http://www.durabiltpolebuildings.com/ and they're based out of Ohio. One thing I don't like about 'em is the cheap windows they use, but I'm sure that could always be upgraded.

Also, it looks like I was off a bit in the pricing. The 24x32 Cape Cod is $23,800 for the shell, and $49,000 with the finished off interior.

The garage I had them build ran around $15,000 for their part of it, but I had to jump through hoops with the county with the permit, getting a bunch of gravel for the driveway and foundation base, all the concrete and digging for extra-large footer pads because I was building it in a low area, etc. I'd imagine that once the floor is poured, I'll be in it around $25,000. Here's a bunch of pics of the garage, in various stages of construction: http://photobucket.com/albums/v247/jgandrew/Garage/

 

[haha]

Thanks, Andre. Your garage looks great.

Ha

 

[Andre1969]

Thanks, Ha! Yeah, my garage WILL be great, once the floor finally gets poured! My guy has been trying for about 2 months now to get a concrete truck down in there to pour it, but every time he thinks he can get something scheduled, the weather just doesn't hold up for us. It really hasn't been all that cold, but just too wet, and he's worried about the truck getting stuck. A few months ago I had a dumptruck get stuck down in there, and that wasn't a pretty sight!